   #copyright

Microsoft

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Companies; Software

   Microsoft Corporation
         Type       Public ( NASDAQ: MSFT)
       Founded      Albuquerque ( April 4, 1975)
     Headquarters   United States Redmond, Washington, USA
      Key people    Bill Gates, Co-founder and Executive Chairman
                    Paul Allen, Co-founder
                    Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive
                    Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect
       Industry     Computer hardware
                    Computer software
                    Publishing
                    Research and development
                    Television
                    Video games
       Products     Microsoft Windows
                    Microsoft Office
                    MSNBC
                    Xbox
                    Xbox 360
                    (See complete listing.)
       Revenue      US$44.28 billion (2006)
   Operating income US$16.47 billion (2006)
                    (36.3% operating margin)
      Net income    US$12.6 billion (2006)
                    (31.6% net margin)
      Employees     71,553 (2006)
       Website      www.microsoft.com

   Microsoft Corporation, ( NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational
   computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44.28
   billion and 71,553 employees in 102 countries as of July 2006. It
   develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software
   products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington,
   USA, its best selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating
   system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software, each of
   which has achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market.
   Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the
   MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the
   Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets
   both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as
   home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360 and MSN TV.

   Microsoft's name, originally bi-capitalized as MicroSoft or with
   hyphenation as Micro-Soft, is a portmanteau of "microcomputer software"
   and is often abbreviated as MS. The company was founded in Albuquerque,
   New Mexico on April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and
   sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. After the market saw a
   flood of IBM PC clones in the mid-1980s, Microsoft used its new
   position, which it gained in part due to a contract from IBM, to
   dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS, which
   stood for Microsoft Disk Operating System. The company later released
   an initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market, which netted
   several of its employees millions of dollars due to the ensuing rise of
   the stock price. The price of the stock continued its rise steadily
   into the early 2000s. In Microsoft Windows, originally an add-on for
   MS-DOS, the company was selling what would become the most widely used
   operating system in the world; Microsoft continued to push into
   multiple markets, such as computer hardware and television. In
   addition, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet
   newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to
   volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers.

   With what is generally described as a developer-centric business
   culture, Microsoft has become widely known for some of its internal
   codes of conduct for its employees. One example is the principle "eat
   your own dog food", which describes the practice of using pre-release
   products inside the company to test them in an environment geared
   towards the real world. Microsoft has been convicted of monopolistic
   business practices — the U.S. Justice Department, among others, has
   sued Microsoft for antitrust violations and software bundling. The
   slogan " embrace, extend, and extinguish" is often used to describe
   Microsoft's strategy for entering product categories involving
   widely-used standards, extending those standards with proprietary
   capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its
   competitors. In addition, Microsoft has been criticized for the
   insecurity of its software. However, Microsoft has won several awards,
   such as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S." by
   Fortune magazine, as well as maintaining a place on the Fortune 500
   list of companies as of 2006.

History

Product divisions

   To be more precise in tracking performance of each unit and delegating
   responsibility, Microsoft reorganized into seven core business groups —
   each an independent financial entity — in April 2002. Later, on
   September 20, 2005, Microsoft announced a rationalization of its
   original seven business groups into the three core divisions that exist
   today: the Windows Client, MSN and Server and Tool groups were merged
   into the Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division; the
   Information Worker and Microsoft Business Solutions groups were merged
   into the Microsoft Business Division; and the Mobile and Embedded
   Devices and Home and Entertainment groups were merged into the
   Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division.

Business culture

   Photo of Microsoft's RedWest campus.
   Enlarge
   Photo of Microsoft's RedWest campus.

   Microsoft has often been described as having a developer-centric
   business culture. A great deal of time and money is spent each year on
   recruiting young university-trained software developers and on keeping
   them in the company. For example, while many software companies often
   place an entry-level software developer in a cubicle desk within a
   large office space filled with other cubicles, Microsoft assigns a
   private or semiprivate closed office to every developer or pair of
   developers. In addition, key decision makers at every level are either
   developers or former developers. In a sense, the software developers at
   Microsoft are considered the "stars" of the company in the same way
   that the sales staff at IBM are considered the "stars" of their
   company.

   Within Microsoft the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to
   describe the policy of using the latest Microsoft products inside the
   company in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations. Only
   prerelease and beta versions of products are considered dog food. This
   is usually shortened to just "dog food" and is used as noun, verb, and
   adjective. The company is also known for their hiring process, dubbed
   the " Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall
   questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?" and is a process
   often mimicked in other organizations, although these types of
   questions are rarer now than they were in the past. For fun, Microsoft
   also hosts the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt, an annual puzzle hunt (a live
   puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles) held at
   the Redmond campus. It is a spin-off of the MIT Mystery Hunt.

   As of 2006, Microsoft employees, not including Bill Gates, have given
   over $2.5billion dollars to non-profit organizations worldwide, making
   Microsoft the worldwide top company in per-employee donations.

User culture

   Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft
   magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available
   through the Microsoft Developer Network, often called MSDN. MSDN also
   offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more
   expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta
   versions of Microsoft software. In recent years, Microsoft launched a
   community site for developers and users, entitled Channel9, which
   provides many modern features such as a wiki and an Internet forum.
   Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other
   services, On10.net, launched on March 3, 2006.

   Most free technical support available through Microsoft is provided
   through online Usenet newsgroups (in the early days it was also
   provided on CompuServe). There are several of these newsgroups for
   nearly every product Microsoft provides, and often they are monitored
   by Microsoft employees. People who are helpful on the newsgroups can be
   elected by other peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most
   Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles people to a sort of
   special social status, in addition to possibilities for awards and
   other benefits.

Corporate affairs

Corporate structure

   The company is run by a Board of Directors consisting of ten people,
   made up of mostly company outsiders (as is customary for publicly
   traded companies). Current members of the board of directors of
   Microsoft are: Steve Ballmer, James Cash, Jr., Dina Dublon, Bill Gates,
   Raymond Gilmartin, Ann Korologos, David Marquardt, Charles Noski,
   Helmut Panke, and Jon Shirley. The ten board members are elected every
   year at the annual shareholders' meeting, and those who do not get a
   majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will
   subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. There are
   five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters.
   These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting
   issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the
   Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and
   other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles
   financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the
   Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate
   matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance
   Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating
   antitrust laws.

   There are several other aspects to the corporate structure of
   Microsoft. For worldwide matters there is the Executive Team, made up
   of sixteen company officers across the globe, which is charged with
   various duties including making sure employees understand Microsoft's
   culture of business. The sixteen officers of the Executive Team include
   the Chairman and Chief Software Architect, the CEO, the General Counsel
   and Secretary, the CFO, senior and group vice presidents from the
   business units, the CEO of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa
   regions; and the heads of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services;
   Human Resources; and Corporate Marketing. In addition to the Executive
   Team there is also the Corporate Staff Council, which handles all major
   staff functions of the company, including approving corporate policies.
   The Corporate Staff Council is made up of employees from the Law and
   Corporate Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Marketing, and
   Advanced Strategy and Policy groups at Microsoft. Other Executive
   Officers include the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the various
   product divisions, leaders of the marketing section, and the CTO, among
   others.

Stock

   When the company debuted its IPO in March 13, 1986, the stock price was
   US$21. By the close of the first trading day, the stock had closed at
   twenty-eight dollars, equivalent to 9.7 cents when adjusted for the
   company's first nine splits. The initial close and ensuing rise in
   subsequent years made several Microsoft employees millions. The stock
   price peaked in 1999 at around US$119 (US$60.928 adjusting for splits).
   While the company has had nine stock splits, the first of which was in
   September 18, 1987, the company did not start offering a dividend until
   January 16, 2003. The dividend for the 2003 fiscal year was eight cents
   per share, followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the
   subsequent year. The company switched from yearly to quarterly
   dividends in 2005, for eight cents a share per quarter with a special
   one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of
   the fiscal year.

   Around 2003 the stock price began a slow descent. Despite the company's
   ninth split on February 2, 2003 and subsequent increases in dividend
   payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock continues to stagnate as of
   June 2006.

Diversity

   In 2005, Microsoft received a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality
   Index from the Human Rights Campaign relating to its policies
   concerning LGBT ( lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees.
   Partly through the work of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft
   (GLEAM) group, Microsoft added gender expression to its
   antidiscrimination policies in April 2005, and the Human Rights
   Campaign upgraded Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index from its 86%
   rating in 2004 to its current 100% rating, putting it among the most
   progressive companies in the world, according to the Human Rights
   Campaign.

   In April 2005, Microsoft received wide criticism for withdrawing
   support from Washington state's H.B. 1515 bill that would have extended
   the state's current antidiscrimination laws to people with alternate
   sexual orientations, although some claim they never withdrew support
   and instead simply were neutral on the bill. However, under harsh
   criticism from both outside and inside the company's walls, Microsoft
   decided to support the bill again in May 2005.

   During his visit to Waterloo in October 2005, Microsoft co-founder Bill
   Gates stated, "Most years, we hire more students out of Waterloo than
   any university in the world, typically 50 or even more."

   Microsoft hires many foreign workers as well as domestic ones, and is
   an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in
   the United States to employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims
   the cap on H1B visas make it difficult to hire employees for the
   company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap."

   Working Mother magazine named Microsoft one of the 100 Best Companies
   for Working Mothers in 2004 and 2005.

Logos and slogans

   In 1987, Microsoft adopted its current logo, the so-called " Pacman
   Logo" designed by Scott Baker. According to the March 1987 Computer
   Reseller News Magazine, "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface,
   has a slash between the o and s  to emphasize the "soft" part of the
   name and convey motion and speed." Dave Norris, a Microsoft employee,
   ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in
   all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet,
   but it was discarded.

   Microsoft's logo depicted here, with the "Your potential. Our passion."
   tagline below the main corporate name, is based on the slogan Microsoft
   had as of 2006. In 2002, the company started using the logo in the
   United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan,
   changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?."
   Like some of Microsoft's other actions, the slogan met its fair share
   of criticism. For example, in his ThirdWay Advertising Blog, David
   Vinjamuri states that while "This is gorgeous, touching advertising of
   the type that wins awards," he ends by noting that the slogan "Only
   reminds us what we don't like about the brand. Can it."

   Microsoft "blibbet" logo, mid-1980s.

   Microsoft logo with the 1994–2002 slogan "Where do you want to go
   today?"

   Microsoft logo as of 2006, with the slogan "Your potential. Our
   passion."

Criticism

Corporate

   Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in
   the computer industry. Most criticism has been for its business
   tactics, which some perceive as unfair and anticompetitive. Often,
   these tactics have been described with the motto " embrace, extend and
   extinguish". Microsoft initially embraces and extends a competing
   standard or product, only to later extinguish it through such actions
   as writing their own incompatible version of the software or standard.
   These and other tactics have led to various companies and governments
   filing lawsuits against Microsoft. Microsoft has been called a "velvet
   sweatshop" in reference to allegations of the company working its
   employees to the point where it might be bad for their health. The
   first instance of "velvet sweatshop" in reference to Microsoft
   originated from a Seattle Times article in 1989, and later became used
   to describe the company by some of Microsoft's own employees.

   Free software proponents point to the company's joining of the Trusted
   Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) as a cause of concern. A group of
   companies that seek to implement an initiative called Trusted Computing
   (which sets out to increase security and privacy in a user's computer),
   the TCPA is decried by critics as a means to allow software developers
   to enforce any sort of restriction they wish over their software.

   “ Large media corporations, together with computer companies such as
   Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them
   instead of you”

          Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation

   Advocates of free software also take issue with Microsoft's promotion
   of Digital Rights Management (DRM), and the company's total cost of
   ownership (TCO) comparisons with its "Get the facts" campaign. Digital
   Rights Management is a technology that gives digital content and
   software providers the ability to put restrictions on how their
   products are used on their customers' machines; these restrictions are
   seen by the technology's detractors as an infringement on fair use and
   other rights. DRM restricts even legal uses, for example, re-mixing or
   playing in a slideshow. Microsoft is not the only platform provider who
   supports DRM, however. For example, Apple Computer has been under fire
   from the French Government for " FairPlay," a DRM system used to
   control usage of content downloaded from its iTunes Music Store
   service. The "Get the facts" campaign argues that Windows Server has a
   lower TCO than Linux and lists a variety of studies in order to prove
   its case. Proponents of Linux unveiled their own study arguing that,
   contrary to one of Microsoft's claims, Linux has lower management costs
   than Windows Server. Another study by the Yankee Group claims that
   Windows Server cost less than Linux for those with legacy systems and
   more for those without.

Technical

   Older versions of Microsoft products were often characterized as being
   unstable — versions of Windows based on MS-DOS, and later the Windows
   95 kernel from the mid 1990s to early 2000s, were widely panned for
   their instability, displaying the " Blue Screen of Death", when Windows
   abruptly terminates an application — usually due to malfunctioning
   drivers or hardware. In Windows NT/2000/XP Professional, the blue
   screen is also known as the Windows Stop Message. While less frequent,
   Windows 2000 and XP are still susceptible to Blue Screens of Death.
   Computer users not familiar with the division of responsibilities among
   applications, the operating system, and third-party device drivers
   sometimes blame Microsoft for problems that are created by third-party
   software, particularly poorly written and unsigned drivers. Microsoft
   has consequently announced that it will disallow unsigned drivers in
   the 64-bit editions of Windows Vista.

   The user interface of Microsoft products is occasionally criticized for
   its inconsistency and complexity, requiring interactive wizards to
   function as an extra layer between the user and the interface.

   “ It's almost like Microsoft is designing for geeks and Apple is
   designing for real people”

          Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research Senior Analyst

   Numerous Microsoft products, most notably Internet Explorer, are seen
   as being insecure to malicious attacks such as computer viruses. Rob
   Pegoraro, writing for the Washington Post, says that due to Windows
   leaving five Internet ports open for various running services,
   malefactors have an easier time compromising the system. A study
   conducted by Forrester Research refutes these claims, stating that it
   found that after a year of studying Windows and several Linux
   distributions, Windows had the fewest vulnerabilities and that
   "Microsoft was the only vendor to have corrected 100% of the publicly
   known flaws during the study's time period." In an article for
   SecurityFocus, Scott Granneman said that as of 2004- 06-17 there were
   153 accumulated security holes since 2001- 04-18 and that Internet
   Explorer "is a buggy, insecure, dangerous piece of software." Mike
   Nash, a Microsoft Corporate Vice President, responded to Internet
   Explorer security concerns in a 2005 interview by stating that the
   version of Internet Explorer shipped with Windows XP Service Pack 2
   gives it security on the same level as its competition. The next
   planned version of Internet Explorer, 7, is scheduled to feature a
   security overhaul with anti-phishing and malware prevention technology.
   In a recent review, PC Magazine's Neil Rubenking commented that the
   phishing technologies in Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 were superior to
   equivalents from McAfee and Symantec.

Microsoft.com

   Microsoft.com is one of the most popular destinations on the internet.
   It receives more than 100 million hits per day from across the globe.
   According to Alexa.com, Microsoft.com is currently ranked 16th amongst
   all websites for Traffic Rank.

   One of the first Microsoft.com homepages, as of April, 1994.

   The Microsoft.com homepage as of August, 2006

   Microsoft's New Site in Testing as of November 2006

   url= http://labs.microsoft.com/en/us/

In fiction

     * in William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer, a microsoft is a small
       wedgelike piece of software that a human can access via insertion
       in an implant in their nervous system.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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